Hey, what a sincere and thought provoking article!
As in life, so in Steemit the rules are not fair. We are not equal. But here instead of trying to be better at what they do, people tend to complain and search for ways to get rewards, failing to realize it's not the players to blame rather than the game itself.
Buying votes is not necessarily a bad thing. I have been using them to get into the trending page and attract more people.
Like you stated, organic audience is built slowly in time. I know that for a fact also.
Still people will continue to complain. To be honest, some of them are right. There's a tendency in the trending pages with mostly BS content, usually with a lot of paid upvotes. At the same time quality posts end up buried and never discovered. I randomly stumbled upon your post and I've checked your blog. Followed!